Bellator 120 to Remain on Pay-Per-View; Chandler Faces Brooks for Interim LW Title

The conclusion to the Eddie
Alvarez-Michael
Chandler trilogy will have to wait. Bellator’s plans to hold
its inaugural pay-per-view on May 17 will not.

The promotion announced during a conference call on Saturday that
Bellator 120 will move forward as planned as a pay-per-view
offering. Some expected the promotion to move the entirety of the
card to Spike TV when Eddie
Alvarez was forced to withdraw from the event’s headliner due
to a concussion suffered in training, but instead, Chandler will
square off with Will Brooks
in an interim lightweight title tilt. Brooks was initially
scheduled to face Nate Jolly
earlier on the pay-per-view draw before Alvarez’s injury; it is
currently unclear if Jolly will remain on the card against a
different opponent.

“It’s remaining on pay-per-view because it’s a pay-per-view worthy
card,” Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said. “It’s a must-see card. It’s
a premium level event and it’s going to remain on pay-per-view.
There was never a question or a hesitation to keep this level event
on pay-per-view. We had an utterly spectacular show, and now we’ve
got a spectacular show. I could not be happier about it staying
right where it is.”

Brooks had even stronger words for those questioning the event’s
viability as a pay-per-view.

“I’m getting kind of annoyed of people asking why is this still on
pay-per-view. I personally think you’re a fool if you ask that
question,” Brooks said. “…All people are doing when they ask this
question is making yourself sound like a cheap ass. You’re
de-valuing the fighters, the event and the organization.”

Bellator 120 takes place at the Landers Center in Southhaven,
Miss., and will also see Quinton
Jackson lock horns with Muhammed
Lawal in the evening's main event. In addition, middleweight
champion Alexander
Shlemenko clashes with former UFC light heavyweight champion
Tito
Ortiz at 205 pounds. A heavyweight tournament final bout
between Blagoi
Ivanov and Alexander
Volkov has been moved from the Spike TV preliminary card to the
main bill. The price of the five-bout pay-per-view lineup depends
on the provider, with most charging somewhere between $30 and
$45.

Bellator’s first try at pay-per-view last November faced similar
difficulties when Ortiz suffered a neck injury and was forced to
withdraw just one week away from his main event matchup with
Jackson. As a result, the promotion moved the card – headlined by
the Chandler-Alvarez rematch – to Spike TV.

No timetable has been established for Alvarez’s return. The
Blazilians member is 9-1 in Bellator, most recently regaining the
155-pound belt with a hard-fought decision over Chandler on Nov. 2.
Both fights between Chandler and Alvarez were regarded as two of
the best in company history. Rebney said he hopes to rebook
Alvarez-Chandler III at a later date.

“Late last week we received a call from [Alvarez’s] manager
explaining that Ed had hit his head on a training partners’s hip
and he was experiencing dizziness in training. We were then told
following that initial call that we would be receiving daily
updates, but that the situation was improving,” Rebney said. “Last
Tuesday we were told that Ed was doing full cardio training but
still experiencing a small amount of dizziness when he grappled but
that he was back to about 70 percent. On Friday we were told that
he’d made no further progress past the 70 percent. But he was still
doing full cardio training and that he was questioning whether or
not he could fight on the pay-per-view….Early this morning, Ed
officially pulled out of the fight.”